The Hunger Games: Austin & Ally
by BeautifulMysteries13
Summary: "They just want a good show, that's all they want! You know how to hunt." Dallas says seriously. "Animals." I retort quietly. "It's not that different, Ally." He whispers, his brown eyes gaze at me and I shake my head again. "There are only twenty-four of us, Dallas and only one comes out." I say.
1. The Reaping

A scream awakes me; I snap up and turn my head directly at the sound. It's my little sister, Lily, sobbing loudly and squeezing the hem of her cotton blanket. I quickly stand up and dash to her bed concerned. I sit down and wrap my arms around her protectively. Still she is sobbing and it breaks my heart to see her like this. "No! No! No!" Lily shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Lily…shhh…Lily. It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's ok." I soothe caressing her smooth blonde hair. She seems to calm down after a couple of minutes of me running my fingers throughout her hair. Finally after a couple of minutes she whimpers through her hair, "It was me."

"Lily, your name is only in there once, they're not gonna pick you." I mumble softly kissing the top of her head. She is shaking hard at the thought of her being reaped to the Capitol to fight in Panem's annual pageant called The Hunger Games. She has every right to be afraid; the Hunger Games is basically a reminder of the Dark Days from those who were strong and courageous through those days. Now today is the seventy-fourth year and its Lily's first year of being in the glass ball that has every girl's name in District Twelve in it. Same goes for the boys. But they pick young men and women between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in an arena where only one come out alive out of twenty-four tributes.

"Try to go back to sleep." I murmur against her hair.

She shakes her head slowly. "I can't."

"Just try."

Her small hands cup around my ear and she asks me to sing for her. I nod. She lays back down into her bed and I clear my throat. "Deep in the meadow, under the willow, a bed of grass, a soft green pillow…" I begin softly caressing her hair. Soon Lily starts to stay in sync with me. "See, you know the song." I smile. She returns the grin and I turn to get up to leave. Her eyes turn worried. "Where are you going Ally?" She asks. I shake my head. "I'll be back. Just go to sleep. I love you." Slowly, Lily nods with a smile on her lips and falls back into a deep sleep as I get ready. Soundless, I put on my father's leather jacket, a shirt underneath, comfortable pants and my worn hunting boots. I put my hair into a back braid and grab my game bag.

I hear a hiss directed towards me and I whip towards the noise. My eyes turn to glare at the scruffy, messed up cat named Buttercup. Lily is all about home economics and saving the world and its animals. But one day I had found him in the streets with a messed up ear, rough, black fur and big, bright ugly yellow eyes. Lily begged me to save that cat. I couldn't say no to her so before I knew it, Lily named it Buttercup and they have a really good relationship to this day. Buttercup purrs whenever Lily brings him into bed with her and slowly, they fall fast asleep, it's adorable, except without that disgusting cat in the picture.

Buttercup hisses again and I scoff. "I'll still cook you." Me and Buttercup don't have a really good relationship but if it means keeping Lily happy. I bet Buttercup feels the same way.

I walk outside closing the rigid door seeing kids bathing for the Reaping today. I skip towards the electric fence that fences District Twelve. I listen for the buzzing and it's not there, whenever it's buzzing, it means it's on and I cannot trespass. I go under and walk towards my tree, the one with the bag of arrows and my bow in the hiding out in the hole.

Quickly, I snatch it out of the tree and put an arrow in waiting for game to come along. Something catches my eye when I see a deer, its curious eyes probably looking for food as well. I point my dad's bow towards the game and breathe. It helps me concentrate on my target; it's a little something my father taught me when I was Lily's age.

It runs off and I follow it trying to be as silent as I can. To trick it, I use my slingshot to hit the belly of the tree and scare it off. It skips off and I again follow it, ready to aim, I got it right in the face so it'll go down nice and easy. I am about to release the arrow until…

"What are you going to do with it when you catch it?" A voice asks startling both me and the deer. I try to make a shot and get the deer injured so I can catch up to it but it dashes off before I can shoot. "Damn you Dallas! It's not funny!" I shout pretty angry as Dallas is laughing. "Well what were you going to do with it, Alls? The place is crawling with peacekeepers."

"I was going to sell it to some peacekeepers." I mumble and Dallas chuckles once more.

"Well it's not that you don't sell to peacekeepers." I answer defensively.

"No, not today!" He says.

"That was the first deer I've seen in months, now I have nothing." I frown at him and I could see guilt in his eyes.

Suddenly, he picks up a rock and throws it towards the tips of a tree and some birds fly out hoping to get away. Instinctively, I put my arrow in the bow and shoot catching a bird off guard getting it to the ground. I giggle and Dallas grins giving me Goosebumps on my arms.

A loud noise rumbles against the trees and birds are squawking loudly. Dallas gives me a light shove to underneath a rock boulder and I follow his lead. Darkness surrounds us and I give Dallas a look of annoyance. It's the hovercraft. The Hunger Games are here.

* * *

Dallas and I were at our hill, hanging out, just talking about today and some other stuff.

"What if they did? What if they just stopped watching?" Dallas asks. I roll my eyes.

"They won't, Dallas. It's way too engrossing."

"What if they did? What if we did just for one year?" Dallas questions again.

"Not going to happen." I say.

"They root for their favorites, they cry when they get killed, it's sick." Dallas snaps.

"Dallas." I say warningly. If people hear us, we are going to be killed. You'd be surprised how fast news spread, if it was that fast, we'd both be dead in an instant.

"If no one watches, then they don't have a game," says Dallas. I look at him seeing how disgusted he is by the fact of the Hunger Games.

"It's as simple as that." He finishes. My lips curve up into a smile about how Dallas is talking and talking about this.

"What?"

"Nothing." I say biting my lip preventing a smile. He turns away. "Fine, laugh at me."

"I'm not laughing." I defend myself and let out a giggle, even Dallas realized how ridiculous he is being and smiles. After a minute of two of silence between me and Dallas, Dallas looks at me hesitantly. "We could do it you know?"

I look at Dallas and his face was dead serious, no hint of a jokingly face that he always uses.

"Take off, live in the woods. It's what we do anyways." says Dallas.

"They'd catch us." I say.

"Well maybe not." He says.

I scoff. "Cut out our tongues, or worse. We wouldn't make it five miles, even if we tried."

"No I'd get five miles. I'd go that way." says Dallas pointing to the far end of the forest and from the way he'd said it, I can tell he really means it.

I roll my eyes again. "I have Lily and you have your brothers and sister."

"Well, they can come too." Dallas says.

I chuckle, "Lily in the woods?" Lily is not the type to be in the woods. Dallas snorts and nods.

"Or maybe not."

If we did, take off, then we'd have to handle all of Dallas's siblings and my Lily, and our parents. It'd be a hassle, so much work, so much food for everyone, it just wouldn't work.

"I'm never having kids." I blurt out.

"I might, if I didn't live here in Twelve." says Dallas staring off in the distance.

"But you do."

"I know but if I didn't." snaps Dallas. I sit there and look at him scanning his features and I hate to admit this at a time like this but he has very strong features about him, his hair, his ravishing brown eyes, pink lips.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot." Dallas says pulling something from his sack. "Here, take this."

Immediately, I sit up smelling fresh bread. "Oh, my god! Dallas, is this real?" I snatch the small piece of loaf in his hands and rip it open; making sure it's not a joke or something. Bread isn't the easiest thing everyone can buy; it's a lot more expensive since it's fresh every time.

"Better be, cost me a squirrel." I smell the insides, warmth fills my nostrils and I smile.

"Happy Hunger Games." Dallas muses and I laugh.

"And may the odds be ever in your favor." I say using my best Capitol accent to mock Ms. Effie Trinket, the Capitol lady who does The Reaping's. My teeth sink into the soft, fluffy bread that cost Dallas a squirrel. It's only the size of my palm, but it's worth it because my taste buds are begging for more. But then I think about today, Reaping Day. How many times is his name in the bowl?

"Forty-two." Dallas says and I realize I must've said it aloud.

"The odds aren't exactly in my favor, I guess." He mumbles. I look at him with sympathetic eyes but then I force my eyes to look down, I wouldn't want to make him feel bad. I mean, if he did the same to me, I would feel terrible.

* * *

I am at the black market, giving some coins for yarn so Lily can use it. "Thank you, girl." Greasy Sae smiles and I nod.

"M-hm."

I rummage through the beads in her basket; something shines throughout all the others, like a very shiny yellow whilst the other beads are coal black or a dark brown. My fingers find a pin, with a bird on it, its gold and hanging on an arrow. "What's this?" I ask. Greasy Sae puts her fingers up to her chin thinking until her eyes light up.

"That's uh, a mockingjay." She answers. I hesitate whether to get it or not.

"How much?" I ask after a minute.

She gives a wave of her hand, shaking her head and gives me a generous grin. "It's yours, you keep it."

"Thank you." I beam admiring the mocking jay. Back then, the jabberjay's were used as a weapon to spy and when the Capitol found out, they killed all the jabberjay's except one. That one jabberjay mated with a mocking bird and soon, a new species was created. The mockingjays.

When I get home, Lily is dressed up in the white blouse and yellow skirt I wore to my first reaping, a hand me down from…me. Her blonde hair was braided into two separate ones, and she was adorable with her brown boots. "Look at you!" I exclaim.

"You are beautiful." Lily grins at me. "But you better tuck in that tail, little duck." I tease pushing the hem of her blouse back into her skirt. Lily giggles.

"I put something out for you too." a soft voice says. My mother. I feel my smile fade but regain it as soon as I realize Lily is in front of me.

"Okay." I say.

I get into the tub and grab the cloth. I wash everywhere, between my toes, in my fingernails, and rinse my face with water. After I'm done, I walk into my room naked seeing the pale blue dress laid out neatly at the edge of my bed. I stare at it, is she sure she wants me to wear it? This dress was when my mom was my age; it's very valuable to her because it reminds her of her past, of being free and young.

I slip it on and stare at myself in the mirror. It's nice, it's beautiful but the bland look on my face ruins it. My mother comes in to do my hair, and after fifteen minutes, my hair is neatly braided into a nice circle around my scalp but some bangs slipped off and fell to the borders of my face.

"Now you look beautiful, too." My mother softly says.

"Wish I looked like you." Lily says keeping her eyes glued to the floor. I walk over to her.

"No, I wish I looked like you, little duck." I adjusted the collar on her blouse and as soon as I said that, the horn rings outside. That means it's time for Reaping. Lily's face froze, and my jaws clenched. Anxiety was on my mother's, Lily's and my mind. I know it.

"Hey, want to see what I got for you today?" I ask Lily and her face beams. I pull it off the shelf and put it into Lily's small palm. "It's a Mockingjay pin. To protect you," Lily stares at it and I continue. "As long as you have it, nothing bad will happen to you." After hearing that, Lily tightens her grip on it frightened. "Okay? I promise." She nods her head and I hear the horn again. Lily hugs me and I hug her too, I rub my hand on her soft hair, slowly. "Come on, we have to go now." I say softly and we walk out the door holding hands, never letting go.

* * *

We break the sync of movement as Lily stops and panics. I forgot to explain to her that the Peacekeepers take blood from our fingers to make sure we are still qualified to enter the games. Tears flood down her face and I wipe them off with my thumbs. "Shh, shh, Lily, it's okay, it's okay." Lily nods.

"Okay, it's time to sign in now, Okay?" She is having trouble breathing.

"They're just going to prick your finger to take a little bit of blood." I explain.

"You didn't say anything…" Lily begins and I nod my head. "I know. It doesn't hurt much, only a little."

I wipe the rest of her tears with my thumb again. "Okay? Just go sit down with the little kids and I will find you after, okay?" I say worriedly. Lily walks into line with the other twelve year olds and I can see that they are ready to prick her finger. Lily winces and the Peacekeeper tells her to go, Lily does so and walks in line with the other kids like I told her.

"Next!" The lady Peacekeeper calls and she pricks my finger as I keep my eyes on the lookout for blonde hair and a duck tail. The big screen in the town square is clearly recording our reaping so everyone knows how the tributes were reaped. "Next!" The lady Peacekeeper says again and I run off searching for Lily but we are put in order of girls on one side and boys on the other in order of our age. The mayor, Effie Trinket and some other pale people walk out of the Justice Building.

I turn my head with wandering eyes only to see Dallas. I give him a scared face because of my worry for Lily and he shakes his head subtly. _It's okay. _He mouths to me and I nod to him. Effie Trinket and her big, pink hair walk up to the podium, she taps her deep purple glove on the microphone. "Welcome! Welcome! Happy Hunger Games! And, may the odds be _ever _in your favor." Her high-pitched voice is loud and weird, she talks the Capitol talk.

"Now, before we begin, we have a very special video brought to you all the way from the Capitol!" She grins and everyone gives her a dull stare.

I turn to Dallas and he mouths, _War. Terrible War. _I chuckle lightly, so no one hears me. The video, that's how it starts out. The little movie is just a reminder of how everything came to be but it's about five minutes long.

When it's over, Effie mouths the ending to herself excitedly, as if today is in fact a perfect world.

"I just love that!" She muses. When the music ended, Effie starts talking again. "Now, the time has come for us to select one courageous young man and woman for the honor of representing District Twelve in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games!" I feel my arms tighten as well as every muscle in my body. "As usual, ladies first." Effie says, because apparently, it's polite to do that in the Capitol.

As she waltzes over to the glass ball piled with girls names, my palms became sweaty and I was afraid my forehead was soaking in sweat. Her hand, swirled around the ball—and I waited, anticipating for what name she picks—until she slipped out one little piece of paper that was neatly folded. The town square was so silent, you could hear a pin drop, and I bet everyone was holding their breaths, as I was. Effie walked back to the microphone and opened the paper. My heart was beating out of its chest, thumping so loud you could hear it across Panem, from my district to the Capitol, as it felt like this to me. My stomach was folding inside my stomach lining; the thought almost throws my dinner out.

She said the name, it wasn't my name, but it was Lily Dawson's.

* * *

**Hillo! So this is my second Austin & Ally story, and I just wanted to apologize if I got anything wrong in the chapter about the HG, so yep. o_o**

**Enjoy! Review, and I hope you guys like it!**

**P.S: I've already written the next three chapters so please...five review please? :D**

**PPS: Sorry I haven't written the next chapter for my other Austin & Ally story :( I lost interest. I hate it when I do that, so sorry!**


	2. I volunteer!

One time there was a moment when I was hanging in a tree, waiting for some animals to pass by and I got so hung up in trying to catch some game to trade in at the black market, I dozed off and fell down planting hard onto my back trying to stand up but I was blind for that one second, I tried to wake up but it seemed I was as stiff as I could ever be. The sudden wisp of air came crashing down and I felt like I could not breathe anymore, it was hard to get my breathing in order that day. That's how I felt right now, that moment reminded me of now and how stiff I was and hard to inhale it was. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach and I was about to throw up even if my name wasn't called.

My face showed complete horror as Lily was walking up to the podium with quivering hands and shaky knees, the color paling away from her rosy cheeks. You could see it from here. She slowly put her hands behind her back and tucked in the hem of her blouse…my little duck. I wasn't going to let this happen. I walked out of line.

"Lily!" The cry screeched out my throat. I suddenly became alive, my muscles started functioning again. "Lily!" Peacekeepers grabbed my arms and started to push me back into the crowd. I couldn't take Lily being in the games, being helpless as she tried to fight the other warriors in the battle. I forced my way through the Peacekeepers and I screamed and my voice was chalky. "I-I-I volunteer!" I could feel stares of complete and utter shock burning into my back.

"I volunteer as tribute!" I gasped. Everyone was gaping at me, surprised and confused and shocked. Everything I was feeling too. "I volunteer as tribute." I repeated through a whisper.

Effie suddenly looked astonished and trotted to the mayor. "Mr. Mayor, I believe we have a volunteer!"

Lily ran to my sides and hugged me with sobs. "Lily, you need to get out of here, you need to get out of here." I felt my eyes almost turn into slips of salt water but I forced them back because sponsors would see me as a weakling and I would look idiotic.

"No! No!" Lily shouted her voice hoarse as she disagreed to my directions.

"Go find Mom!" I say trying to keep my tears away.

"No! No! I won't!" Lily shouted again with tears flowing. "Lily, go find Mom right now, I am so sorry." I said. My throat was becoming dry each second.

"No! No! No Ally!" Lily was screaming. She hugged me at my waist and gripped, hard. Dallas was coming and before I knew it, she was being carried away by Dallas, crying hysterically as well as pounding against his back.

"Up you go, Ally." Dallas says before walking away, with a struggle to keep a squirming Lily on his shoulder blade.

"A dramatic turn of events here in District Twelve." Effie says ignoring Lily's yelps for me.

The Peacekeepers, about four of them lead me to the podium. I can't believe what just happened…Lily was one slip in thousands! How could the odds of this be happening?! The odds are not in my or Lily's favor today, well they never are, not on reaping days

"District Twelve's very first volunteer! Bring her up." I walked up the stairs in a daze, everything was blurry and I felt dizzy. "Come on dear." Effie reaches for my hand and I let her. Her hands move to my shoulders and she puts me by the girls' glass bowl, on the left.

"What's your name?" Effie asks me.

"Allyson Dawson." I answer quietly.

"Well I bet my buttons that was your sister, wasn't it?"

"Yes." I reply dazed. I look around so confused and shocked.

"Let's give a big hand for our very first volunteer, Allyson Dawson!" She pats her fingers against her palm creating a small clap. Then everyone does something so unexpected, they start to kiss their first three fingers and raise it into the air. First one person, one line, one group and then slowly, everybody in the district was raising their fingers. Okay, if this wasn't national and going across the country for everyone to see, I would be crying. This means a goodbye to someone you loved and cherished, I didn't even know everyone knew who I was! And here they are saying they will miss me. I felt angry but I couldn't enforce my anger over my terror and sadness.

"And now for the boys." Effie announces.

She walks to the other glass bowl, her heels clacking and her hand just snatches a paper from the middle. When she gets back to the microphone, I could see Dallas's face tense up. "Austin Moon." She says and I sigh in relief because I won't have to be in the games with Dallas… but it quickly turns into a groan as I let his name sink into my mind. Austin Moon…no. I feel like I just never stop owing him, and I hate that feeling.

Austin looks around completely bewildered as everyone clears the isle for him to go. Some Peacekeepers lead up to the podium as they did with me. I glance at Austin seeing his features, he has a stocky build, and bright blonde hair combed back, tall figure and hazel eyes. Fright filled his face, but agitation filled mine.

"Our tributes from District Twelve!" Effie smiles and we meet eye contact. I look at him and think of back then. My starving days, it was the time when my father had died. Austin is the baker's son, when I was in the rain that day, his mother ordered Austin to take out the bad baked bread and feed it to the pigs. Well I guess he seen me, felt bad and tossed me some loafs of bread. Before my eyes, he was gone and there was two loafs of wet, muddy, warm bread in my hands. That helped me, my mother and Lily survive, and that's what gave me hope. I remember that night, I ran home, using my energy to give it to my family, and we garbled the bread down and went to bed full. It gave me energy for hunting and look where I am now. He's in the Games with me. And I have to murder him.

"We'll go on you two, shake hands." Effie giggles, snapping me out of my thoughts. Our eyes meet again and the memory flashes back, the rain, the pigs, Austin's mom, and the warm loaves in my hands. Austin reaches out his hand and I blink staring at it. Finally we shake hands and Austin looks at me scared and terrified only because he was chosen, nothing else. He doesn't feel anything about this; I bet he doesn't even remember when he did this and when he rescued me from dying from starvation.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be _ever_ in your favor." says Effie and then walks us into the Justice Building for our goodbyes. I get shoved into a room. I wait at the window, tapping my fingers against the frame anxiously waiting for what's to come after this.

* * *

**Sorry this was a short chapter**** I have really nothing to say about this except…I have to leave for some random excuse… *runs off into the hallway but then comes back to say review comments***

**Oh yeah. I didn't forget you guys, well here's my replies…**

**Trying2StayHopeful: Yes! I am TOTALLY on Peeta's team. Everlark and Auslly 4 ever! :D **

**ausllylovestory: Thanks! I just thought that it would be cool to do this and you make it even awesomer if you love my story! Thank you! **

**xxx All You Need Is Love xxx: Me too! The Hunger Games and Austin & Ally rock and thank you! You are an amazing author as well! :D**

**Allygurl101: I think I will just make this story and end it. I hope that's what you mean haha! :P And true, the second and third book aren't the best but I will still see the movies :)**

**PurpleKitty18: Thanks! :D You rock. (=**

**Well thanks guys for supporting my story! I love you. Seriously. I was happy to update this chapter! You guys deserve a hug, a virtual hug. **** And again, I am sorry if I got anything wrong, those of you who love to criticize other stories ;) Sorry didn't mean that in offense. **


	3. The Capitol train

The doors open and Lily speeds in grabbing me, her eyes red and swollen. "You have three minutes." says the male peacekeeper slamming the door shut. My mother is right on her tail but waiting at the door with tired and scared eyes.

"Lily, Lily, it is okay. Shh, Lily I don't have much time." I begin and Lily is sobbing trying to keep it cool. "Lily, listen. You will be okay; don't take extra food from them. It isn't worth putting your name in more times." I say and Lily nods. She drifts off and I put my hand under her chin. "Lily, Dallas can bring you game. Remember you can sell cheese from that goat I got you okay?" I say with my lips shaking.

"Just try to win. Maybe you can." Lily mumbles still sobbing. I nod trying not to cry. "Of course." I whisper. "And maybe I can, I am smart you know?" I murmur and Lily nods with shaky lips too.

"And you can hunt, Ally." Lily says.

"Exactly." We sit there for a moment when Lily pulls something from her dress pocket. It's the Mockingjay pin I gave her, to protect her. She slips it out and pushes it into my palm. "To protect you." She murmurs pushing a strand of my brown hair out of my face.

"Thank you." I say and Lily forces a smile. I kiss the top of her forehead and we embrace each other. I don't want to let her go but…I will have too because I did this to protect her. I look up seeing my mom looking as she did when my father died. I let go of Lily to talk with my mother. My hands grip her shoulder. "You can't tune out again." I say.

My mother nods understandingly. "I won't."

"No, you can't. Not like when dad passed." I snap and my mother nods again.

"I won't be there anymore, you're all she has. No matter what you feel, you have to be there for her. Do you understand?" I ask dead serious and my mother nods once again. Tears build up in her eyes ready to slip out but I shake my head. "Don't cry." I say. I pull my arms open and we stay like that for a few seconds.

"Don't cry. Don't. Don't." I mumble against my mother's pale brown hair. I swear only fifteen seconds later, the door opened again.

"It's time." The male peacekeeper says and Lily starts to cry again, hysterical. "No! No!" She shouts.

"I promise Lily!" The door slams in my face and I am staring at the door awed. This may be the last time I see them. I will never be there for Lily again, never will be a big sister, never will be a daughter, and never will be in District Twelve where I belong again. The door opens in my face, which is showing bewilderment right now. Dallas steps in and I grip the cuff of his sleeve pulling him in for a hug.

"I'm fine." I say and Dallas doesn't let go of me.

"Yeah, I know." He answers back, with his warm breath panting against my neck.

"I am." I confirm, but in truth, I am scared.

Dallas lets go and looks me straight into the eyes. "Listen to me Ally; you are stronger than they are. I know it."

I stare at him finally showing my fright. "Get to a bow." He orders and I shake my head swiftly. "They might not have a bow-" I start but Dallas interrupts.

"They will if you show them how good you are." Dallas begins. "They just want a good show, that's all they want!" He starts to show worry in his eyes. "If they don't have a bow, then you make one. Promise me. You know how to hunt." Dallas says seriously.

"Animals." I retort quietly.

"It's not that different, Ally." He whispers, his brown eyes gaze at me and I shake my head again.

"There are only twenty-four of us, Dallas and only one comes out." I say with my lower lip trembling.

"Yeah, and it will be you." Dallas explains and the peacekeeper comes in. "Let's go." He orders again pulling Dallas out the door.

"Take care of them, Dallas. Please don't let them starve!" I hug him one last time and he is pulled away from me.

"I'll see you soon, okay?" Before I knew it, that blob of fluffy brown strands was gone. Something told me I wouldn't see Dallas again.

Austin and I are shoved into a car with Effie and she is going on and on about the train to the Capitol. "You two are in for a treat! Platinum doorknobs, crystal chandeliers, and it flies!" Effie trills and continues.

I look at Effie who is blabbering on about the Capitol's train and its refineries while Austin is looking ahead with red cheeks, pink eyes that are puffed up and he is holding in sob which just gave him hiccups. "We'll be in the Capitol no later than two days." says Effie.

Finally after what seemed like forever to listening to Effie, the car hauls to a stop and Peacekeepers lead us out of the driving vehicle only to have everyone in District Twelve watch us leave. Effie speeds in front of Austin and me, ecstatic to get into the silver train. She gestures for us to enter and hesitantly, I do but Austin immediately walks inside. Austin is stopped frozen at the doorway. What? What is there? Something terrible?

But no. It wasn't something terrible Austin was shocked at, his face showed no fright, it showed astonishment. What I saw completely was…amazing. Just like Effie described, crystal chandeliers, but there was some stuff she forgot or maybe I wasn't listening. There was food of all kinds sitting on a small table in the corner filled with creamy desserts, or gooey little things in the form of worms, fruit you can't get out in the woods, solid hard tables which the sunlight brought out the shine and a soft fuzzy blue carpet. The walls were a light blue swirled with designs, not as pale as my mother's dress in which I am wearing now, green liquid in a bottle, plates that glistened with the other utensils and in the middle of the table was candles and glasses which are cups. It was amazing. I couldn't be more fascinated. It was more…fancier than the Justice Building, the most fancy building I've ever been inside of.

Effie sat us down and smiled.

"It's amazing, two-hundred miles an hour and you can barely feel a thing." She giggles and continues.

"I think it's one of the wonderful things about this opportunity, that even though you're here and even it's just for a little while, you get to enjoy all of this!" We stare at her and Effie smiles again. "I think I will go find Haymitch, he's probably hiding out in the bar car." She stands up with her fingers curved and walks out with her arms and hands in the same position as it was when she was sitting down.

My eyes wander to the right and I see the trees pass by in a blur. I'm getting farther away from home each second. Austin and I sit in complete awkward silence as the door slides close. Austin doesn't know what to say because his mouth opens and then closes, but I just ignore him and look around the train. Suddenly, a thought hits me making me not want to speak with him; I don't want to face the fact of me owing him more.

Finally Austin asks something. "Have you ever met him?"

I look around once again ignoring his voice as if he weren't there.

"Haymitch?" He asks again.

I look at the trees again; Austin gets flustered and looks at me. "You know, Ally, he did win this thing once, and he has to mentor us now." I don't respond.

"Look, you know, if you don't want to talk I understand, but I don't think there's anything wrong with getting a little bit of help." Austin says and I finally look at him with my angry eyes. The memory flashes back as he said that. I understand Austin helped me but it doesn't mean he has to bring it up at a time like this. My fist clenched and I looked away livid. I could tell Austin didn't like my stare so he stared off too.

The door slides open again. A man with dirty blonde hair and wrinkled clothes steps out with his hand on his stomach. I stare him, up and down. He is barefoot, wrinkled brown pants, a sky blue shirt and beige vest, the buttons undid and tired, grumpy eyes. He looks at us as if we were the last thing he wanted to see and huffs. He gives me and Austin a slanted smile.

"Congratulations." He greets us. Austin and I exchange a glance at this man.

Walking over, he has a glass cup in his hand ready to slip out of his sweaty palms and sets it on the table pouring some brown liquid in it. I believe its alcohol; something my mother uses to do her remedies. He looks really hung-over and mad. I want to say this is Haymitch…our mentor? Yeah, I don't think I am going back to District Twelve with this attitude of his. Haymitch pours some drink into his cup and reaches for the ice bowl which apparently held…ice. He groans and asks us the most idiotic question.

"Where's the ice?" I stared at him in disbelief, Austin too.

"I dunno." Austin answered. Haymitch slammed the cover back onto the ice bowl lid frustrated and took the whole bottle of alcohol with him to sit down. "May I?" Haymitch asks and Austin gestures for him to sit. Haymitch plopped on the cushioned seat with his glasses clinking each other as he sat. Austin rubbed his hands and smiled politely. "So when, when do we start?"

Haymitch puts a hand up clearly taken back by his question.

"Whoa, whoa." He starts. "So eager. Most of you aren't in such a hurry." mutters Haymitch.

Austin sighs. "Yeah. I want to know what the plan is; you are our mentor you know? You're supposed to go…"

"Mentor?" Haymitch blurts out spitting some drink out.

"Yeah, mentor. You are supposed to tell us how to earn sponsors and give us advice." Austin snaps.

"Oh! Okay. Well um let's try this," Haymitch says. "Embrace the probability… of your imminent… death." Right there I was going to stab him or something but I held my frustration back. "And know, in your heart," He points to his chest with his cup of drink. "That there's nothing I can do to save you." He smirks and Austin is shocked at his answer too.

"So why are you here than?" I ask.

Haymitch considers this a minute and smiles. "The refreshments."

"Okay, that's enough of that." Austin reaches for Haymitch's glass but he uses his foot to keep Austin in his seat. "You made me spill my glass and these are brand new pants." Haymitch growls. Austin is panting probably trying to breathe against the stench of his feet and I am glaring at Haymitch.

"You know, I am going to finish this in my room now." Haymitch stands up to leave the room and does it without another word. I am clearly annoyed by him now; I don't think I will be able to stand his ignorance and selfishness. It's like he doesn't care about us, we are just some garbage waiting to be tossed out. Austin is still determined for his advice and stands up too going to find Haymitch. "He'll come around."

"What? It's no use!" I say.

"I will talk to him." Austin exits the room and I am left alone with all the treats and desserts. I just wonder what my family and Dallas are doing right now and how they are holding up…

* * *

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith are discussing when the moment a tribute becomes a victor on this big screen in the living room of the train. "I remember this year!" Claudius Templesmith smiles.

"One of my favorite years and favorite Arenas, the use of the rubble in the ruined city…" says Caesar Flickerman.

"Very exciting." says Claudius.

"And this moment here, this is a moment you never forget." starts Caesar pointing to a kid beating another kid to death with a brick stone. "The moment when a tribute becomes a victor." They both give the television a smile. I gulp and switch the television off; I don't want to think that I am going to be a victor. It will give me too much hope that I will see Lily, Dallas, or my mother again.

I go to sleep with these thoughts still in my mind. What if I do win? What if I go home to Dallas, Lily and the woods again? My arrow and bow, the fresh smell of pine trees will be there waiting for me as my family and Dallas is now. When I open my eyes again, its daylight so I slip on my dress, braid my hair and head outside for breakfast. Before entering the room, I can see Effie applying makeup, and Haymitch and Austin munching on breakfast. I enter the room and walk to the table.

"You'd freeze to death." Haymitch snaps.

"No because I'd light a fire." Austin defends.

"That's a good way to get you killed." Haymitch says.

"What's a good way to get killed?" I ask, interrupting the conversation.

"Joy. Why don't you join us?" Haymitch smirks and I sit on the chair between the two.

"I was giving some live-saving advice." says Haymitch.

"Like what?" I ask.

"I was asking how to find shelter." Austin says filling me in on their conversation.

"Which would come in handy if you were still alive." Haymitch rolls his eyes. I bite my lip hoping some mean words wouldn't come out. Finally I just ask what's on both me and Austin's mind. "How do you find shelter?"

"Pass the jam." Haymitch licks his fingers from the bread crumbs between his nails. I feel anger rising and I could explode any minute, like a time bomb I've heard about from other people in the Seam.

"How _do _you find shelter?" I ask again, meaner than I had asked it before.

"Give me a chance to wake up, sweetheart!" snaps Haymitch. "This mentoring is very… taxing stuff." He pours some liquid into his tea cup which I presume is alcohol. My fists clench up and my teeth grind together. Mentoring can't be that hard! Just give us tips to live and move on! I was too irritated with him, I turned to Austin and he was twiddling his thumbs nervously. "Pass the marmalade." Haymitch ordered. The frustration finally burst out of me when I gripped the butter knife and stabbed it into the table between Haymitch's fingers.

Austin was surprised, and Haymitch too. I wanted to see the smirk off his face so I kind of smiled. Effie gasped and looked at me with complete irritation. "That is mahogany!" She snapped looking away from her purple colored nails.

Haymitch cocked an eyebrow pulling the knife out of the table. "Look at you, just killed a placemat."

I stared daggers into Haymitch. "You really want to know how to stay alive?"

I nod, scoffing that he's finally going to tell us. Haymitch looks at me. "You get people to _like _you." Suddenly, I felt my superior smile vanishing from my face. I don't get along with other people, I am the quiet girl who keeps to herself and doesn't communicate with others. My face frowned as Haymitch took the next laugh.

"Ah, not what you were expecting?" he said. He reached over my shoulder for the jam and started explaining. "When you're in the middle of The Games and you are freezing or starving, some water, a knife or even some matches can mean the difference between life and death." He's right. I grit my teeth again, thinking that Haymitch Abernathy is right. "And those things only come from sponsors. To get sponsors, you have to make people _like _you." My face softens when it sinks in that I know he's right, we all know it. "And right now sweetheart, you're not off to a really good start." He bites into his bread pasted with jam shaking his head at me.

Austin stands up dashing to the window, excitedly. "That's it." He mumbles to himself. I'm guessing we're almost to the Capitol. Good, I can't stand this train anymore, but I love the showers. Warm AND cold, it's amazing because at home, you could only get cold water, warm water if you were lucky.

"It's huge!" awes Austin looking towards the Capitol. "That's incredible."

We head into a tunnel; it gets dark inside the train until the strain of sunlight breaks through and you could hear cheers and chatter outside, different colors, weird colors when you look outside of the one and only…Capitol people. Some are screaming when the train enters, shouting "Austin!" or "Ally!"

My head cocks to the side as Austin starts waving to the people, they grow more and more anxious to meet us. Hysterical screams are heard. Austin smiles big at me. "Come on! Come on!" He wave again and I stare in utter disbelief. These people are going to cheer for us and when we die they will cry…just like Dallas said. It's disgusting, and very wrong.

"You better keep this knife; Austin knows what he's doing." Haymitch says placing the butter knife in my hands. I stare back at Austin and he is still waving, winning the crowd before me…he's trying to get the best of me and when the time comes, The Games come; he's going to kill me. Austin Moon is working hard to murder me.

* * *

**Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry I took so long to update :( I was so busy because I got pneumonia and I was out from school for a week and I had ALL this makeup work...the teachers couldn't just give me a break? Anyways, hope you guys luv this chapter! Please...five reviews? Thanks. Love you! Sorry I don't have time to respond to reviews...I have to finish my math homework! Sorry! Anyways bye!**


	4. Becoming known to the Capitol

_Pluck, Pluck, Pluck_

A Capitol lady with very long and glitter eyelashes is ripping off some off my eyebrow hairs and hosing my legs down, because they are making sure I do indeed look beautiful to make an appearance at the Tribute Parade. They are even cutting off my broken hairs with some kind of sniper, it's ridiculous how far these people will go to make me flawless. The lady applies honey to a sticky strip of fabric, places it on my leg and rips it off. A sting of pain is left there and I wince but not paying attention to my reaction, she does it again, I don't know how many times but when she's done, I am numb on my arms and legs.

These two Capitol people are doing one last strip when they start talking, quietly, their jaws barely moving. "What's that?" I ask hoping they hear me but they don't. "What's that?" I ask again and the guy with black hair and orange highlights smiles. "Oh, we were just saying we may have to hose you down one more time before we take you to Cinna."

They rip the piece of fabric off my leg one last time, hose me down and I am left on the stretcher they 'fixed' me up in and rolled me into a room and left without saying anything. I lay there, tired of these witty Capitol people. They are so silly; it's funny yet annoying at the same time. I just hope my stylist isn't as witty as the others.

The door opens and a young man who must be Cinna enters. I am awed about how normal he looks; most Capitol people are so…so…fake. He looks as normal as everyone else but he added an eye line of gold glitter above his eyes and piercings hanging in his ears. He has brown skin, short dark brown hair, simple dark clothes and shoes. He looks almost…ravishing. "That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen, with your sister?" He says. "My name's Cinna."

"Allyson, call me Ally." I greet cautiously.

"I'm sorry this has happened to you," Cinna smiles sympathetically. Great, now everyone feels sorry for me. "And I'm here to help you in any way that I can."

My frown fades and I smile. No one ever said that they wanted to help me but in fact he does. The thought surprises me. "Most people just congratulate me." I mumble taken aback but with a small smile planted on my lips. "I don't see the point in that." Cinna says. I see his eyes trained on me. "So tonight, they have the Tribute Parade, I am going to take you out and show you off to the world."

"So you're here to make me look pretty?" I mutter.  
'I'm here to help you make an impression." He answers. "Now usually they dress people in the clothes from their district."

"Yeah, we're always coalminers." I say. For ceremonies, you are always supposed to wear something that matches your district's principle industry, like District Four is fishing and District Eleven is Agriculture, and District Twelve is Coalmining.

"Yeah, but I don't want to do that." Cinna says. "I want to do something they are going to remember." He smiles generously. How are they going to make District Twelve be remembered? I don't really make first impressions that easily. I don't really want to be remembered anyways, but I will have to do this, it's not exactly my choice. The odds are never in my favor.

"Did they explain about trying to get sponsors?" Cinna asks.

"Yeah, but I'm not that good at making friends." I respond thinking of Haymitch and his ignorance towards me.

"We'll see." says Cinna slyly. "I just think someone as brave as you," He touches my hair, almost, I pull away but I get a calm presence from his touch, a touch of care and sincerity. "Shouldn't be dressed up in some stupid costume, right?" He asks me. I nod. "Hopefully not." I answer my lips curving up again.

* * *

I stare at myself up and down in the mirror. A black unitard that covers me from head to toe and my hair did in a braid that my mother did on the day of the reaping. Cinna changed my hair to blonde…well not exactly, my hair is still brown but it has blond streaks at the end of it to bring out the supposed "mystery" Cinna is showing us. My face has pink blush on my cheekbones; Cinna applied fake eyelashes to my eyelashes, put eyeliner on and smeared pink lipstick on my lips. I go outside to the District Twelve's chariot and Cinna grins mischievously. "This is safe, I promise. It's not real fire; these suits are built so you don't feel a thing." Cinna explains. Oh, so that was why my hair was changed…to bring out the effect of the fire, I get it but this stuff is permanent…oh well. I will just deal with blondish…brownish hair.

Austin is there next to me dressed in the same unitard and combed back hair. "Looks pretty real to me." He mumbles.

"That's the idea." Cinna smiles. "Ready? Don't be afraid." He tells me. Pssh, afraid? When am I ever afraid?

"I'm not afraid." I say. I let myself on the chariot and Austin is right behind me, he stands to my left. The flames start and the horse glides the chariot out. People start screaming and giving us cheers as we waltz on by. By the time we come out with the fire on us, we won everyone's attention. At first, I am frozen solid. Stiff, gripping the sides of the chariot almost frightened. Then I remember Cinna saying _Ready? Don't be afraid._

So I lift my chin up higher and look around seeing my face on the flags of the Capitol. Austin looks at me, his hand grabs mine but I shake it away, disgusted. I don't like him in that way, I don't even like him at all. "Come one, they'll love it." True, the more affection the better sponsors. I grab his hand and we hold it high in the air, everybody's screams turn into squeals of delight and they cheer loudly than ever before. Roses of different colors were being thrown to our feet and I felt the tips of my mouth slant upward.

The chariots fill the loop of the city circle. Our horses pull in our chariot by President Snow's mansion and then the music ends with a flourish.

President Snow, a short, fairly between skinny and fat, and paper white hair—including mustache and beard—man welcomes us tributes. "We salute your courage and sacrifice." He begins and everyone cheers loudly. "And we wish you Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor." He says through the speaker making it echo throughout the place. We are pulled back and out of the city circle and Cinna pulls me down to my feet. "That was amazing." He says delighted.

"We are all anybody's going to be talking about!" Effie trills and Haymitch walks up to us. "So brave." He says. "Are you sure you should be near an open flame?" I spit at him.

"A fake flame? Are you sure you…" He pauses and looks behind me with the stiffest face I've seen him give. I turn around also and the boy from District Two is staring daggers into all of us—mostly me, Austin and Cinna—showing complete hatred towards our attention from the crowd. His dirty look almost makes me laugh. Jealously, I tell myself. They are just jealous because they didn't get all the attention, they are going to have to hear about our performance since it will be everyone will be talking about—as Effie said—and because they don't have a stylist like Cinna.

"Let's-uh…let's go upstairs." Haymitch says and we follow him into the elevator. I look at the boy with blond hair from Two glaring at us one last time and follow Effie's lead inside the elevator. At least that's what I think these moving rooms are called. "So, each of the districts gets their own floor. Since you are from Twelve, you get the penthouse." explains Effie and we are moving up. I get nauseated being moved around, and not by my own legs so I hold my breath until we reach the twelfth floor. The penthouse.

We walk in. It's fancier than it was on the train. An even huger chandelier hanging across eight seated green chairs with strips, an ocean blue cemented floor, stairs with no screws or anything and fake trees with a silver branch. It was more fascinating to look at than it did at the train. More…Capitol-like I guess, you could say.

"This is the living room. I know, I know!" Effie says dreamily. I look in the corner, a girl dressed in a blood red uniform with gold hems and gloves is patiently waiting, she is wearing a bell-boy hat watching us walk by, emotionless. Avox's. Avox's are people who commit a crime and the Capitol slices their tongues off and they work as servants to the Capitol. My face falls at the sight of three more in the living room and more in the kitchen area. I shake my head and move away.

There are more in the dining room and by the hall. "Your rooms are over here! Why don't you go clean yourselves up a little before supper?" Effie orders us and I do so. I walk down the hall, slowly, carefully.

When I do, the door creaks open and all I could do was stare at it in amazement. A blue bedspread and blue walls…why is everything here in the Capitol, _blue_? I see a moss green bed and green tiles ahead of me. Statues are in every corner of the room glistening as the light passes onto them. A million of little chandelier pieces are hanging above me as I walk. I look in the drawers for a clean, comfortable shirt and slip it on. I undo my braid making my hair soft waves of brown, well blonde slash brown…thanks to Cinna. Finally, I find some black, stretchy pants to make this a more relaxing outfit.

When I'm done, I sit on the bed, tired. My fingers touch the soft, fuzzy blanket. I've never had a bed like this in my whole life…because I lived in the Seam. On the bed stand, there is a remote, a curved weird one with no buttons, not like the ones I always see the Capitol use. I pick it up and it's weightless. I don't know what it is for but I test it out by pressing on the screen. The scene outside my bedroom changes to a view of the Capitol people walking and talking and stuffing themselves with more and more food.

I change the view-sickened by the Capitol—by pressing the screen again. A weird shaped tree appears with tan dirt and a white sun surrounding that one weird tree I think you call a…cactus. I learned from Caesar Flickerman because one of the years, the arena was a bloody hot desert with no darkness—except at nighttime—and no water except in the Cornucopia. Caesar said that a cactus had its juices so animals can adjust to the heat and its surroundings and one time, a kid survived on cactus juice and won the Games.

I press the screen again and change the view. I look up to see what it is and there are the woods, the evergreen trees that I am used to. I am taken aback at this scene; I'd thought I'd never see this again, the tall wood trees climbing their way to the sky, moss gripping the trees, cloudy skies, just evergreen everywhere. I then wonder what Dallas was doing this second. Hunting? Not a doubt. Lily is probably snuggling up with Buttercup in her bed…Buttercup. I forgot about him, I hope he's comforting Lily, I hope he will help her get through the moment I die on screen. My mother is probably cooking some warm dinner soup from the meat I brought—I mean the meat _Dallas _brought them.

I stand up and look at the view, reaching out to touch it. I want to see this again. I want the feeling of good meat in my game bag and I want the comfort when I wore my father's worn jacket. I miss that. I admit it. I need to get back there and be with my family again. With Dallas again.

The thought pulls me short and I snatch the remote and switch the scene off, back to the boring, annoying Capitol city lights.

* * *

**Hillo! So...this is awkward...really sorry about not updating. I am so busy with school, it's kicking my booty right now :P But now that it's fall break, I can update! Here are my responses to reviews! **

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	5. Individual Sessions

The Training Center is stocked with weapons and armor from beginning to end. I continue to pay attention to Atala, the weapons and survival specialist is talking about the Games and what we should expect. "In two weeks, twenty-three of you will be dead. One of you will be alive." I swallow down my breakfast as the boy from two gives me dirty looks again. I already know what he's thinking about…me lying dead by the Cornucopia with his famous knife stabbed into me. "Who that is depends on how well you pay attention over the next four days, particularly to what I'm about to say." Atala explains pulling me back into reality.

"First, no fighting with the other Tributes, you'll have plenty of time for than in the Arena." She lightly chuckles but continues in a serious face. "There are four compulsory exercises; the rest will be individual training. My advice is don't ignore the survival skills," She starts and I roll my eyes. See Haymitch? She gave some good advice within seconds and it took you a fit, and a butter knife stab for you to tell us. I did indeed want to scream that at him but it's not worth it…and he's not here with me for me to yell that to him. "Everyone wants to grab a sword, but most of you will die from natural causes, ten percent from infection, and twenty percent from dehydration." Atala says with no stammer or stutter. I smile at her, she knows her job well…I would love it if it meant not working with the Tributes that are going to die in a matter of days. "Exposure can kill as easily as a knife." She finishes.

The Gamemakers were watching us from their little balcony in the Training Center, watching who they thought was strong and who could be a weakling. I was waiting in line for combat training using knifes when I heard the boy from two shout. "Jason, where my knife, huh?"

That kid who I supposed is Jason shrugged. "I didn't touch your knife."

The boy from two was going crazy about his knife. "I put my knife _right _there!"

"Don't touch me. I didn't touch your knife!" Jason snapped and the boy from Two was getting so pissed off that he had to be held back by a Peacekeeper that came in hearing the commotion.

"You took my knife, you liar!" says the boy from two.  
"I didn't take it, Cato!" Jason says and I know the boy from two is named…Cato. More Peacekeepers came in and I looked up. A little girl, on the ceiling was entangled in the nets above, smirking at Cato while caressing a silver knife. Her black curly hair was tied up into a bun, and her skin color was tan. I couldn't help but slip out a small giggle from the way she played Cato like this.

"I'll finish you right now!" threats Cato. "Better yet, I'll wait for the Arena! You're the first one I get so watch your back!"

I'm smiling huge now as the little girl in the ceiling is playing Cato whilst Cato is pouting out about his stupid, useless knife. I scan my eyes and see that the boy from Eleven is also smiling as well as other people. She sure is sneaky, that'll help her in the Arena, just to jump from tree to tree in the night being quiet and suspicious.

Atala blows a whistle that's hanging loosely like a piece of jewelry around her neck and walks to the area where the knife incident happened. "Everybody, get back in line!" She orders harshly. "I hope you know who your messing with, kid!" says Cato being dragged away by the Peacekeepers.

* * *

"He's a Career. You know what that is?" Haymitch asks at dinner. "From District One." I mumble through the food in my mouth. "And Two. They train in a special academy until they are eighteen, then they volunteer. By that point, they're pretty lethal." Haymitch explains to us, I nod to everything he is saying stuffing more food into me. I already know this though; it's true what Haymitch said. Careers are Tributes from District One and Two; they train for the Games and then volunteer at the Reaping, like what I did for Lily but not as sincere, they volunteer for random people that are helpless.

"But they don't receive any special treatment. In fact, they stay in the exact same apartment as you do, and I don't think they let them have dessert, and you can!" perks Effie taking in a small bite of the lemon crème pie. Austin and I exchange glances, I shrug. I don't care, it was just a little bit rude, saying that we are going to die because we are not Careers and they won't let them have dessert but we can.

"So how good are they?" Austin asks.

Haymitch shrugs with food dissolving in his mouth. "Obviously, they're pretty good. They win it almost every year, but…"

"Almost." Effie interrupts knowing what she said earlier was a little onto the mean side.

"They can be arrogant about it." says Haymitch. "And arrogance can be _a big_ problem."

He cocks his head at me and smirks. I stop chewing to look at him. "I hear you can shoot." He says.

"I'm all right." I say, because to be honest, I'm not the best. I make do with what I can do to feed my hungry family, Lily and my mother. But I remember Dallas always needed help with shooting but was amazing with snares, those were his strengths, and my strength is shooting.

"No, she's better than 'all right.' My father buys her squirrels." Austin says. Why is Austin talking like this? The way he is almost _bragging _about me takes me by surprise. I don't know why, but this rubbed me the wrong way making me furious.

"He says she hits them right in the eye every time." Austin smiles. My fist clench up as he goes on about me. Haymitch nods at my skills, I wanted to be the one to tell him, I didn't need Austin to speak for me! I'm pretty sure and capable to do it myself! My frustration rose and I snapped.

"Austin's strong."

"What?" Austin asks clearly lost.

"He can throw a hundred-pound sack of flour right over his head, I've seen it." I say glaring to Austin subtly but keeping a normal face towards Haymitch.

"Okay well, I'm not going to murder anyone with a sack of flour." snaps Austin. I turn to him with mean eyes. "No, but you might have a better chance of winning if somebody comes at you with a knife!" I spit back.

"I have no chance of winning! None! All right!" Austin shouts, I jump back in surprise. I've never seen this side of him before. Before I know it, I'm quiet and still. Effie and Haymitch are staring at him confused but stay silent to hear what he has to say.

"It's true, everyone knows it." He mumbles and I suddenly feel sorry for him. He has no faith in himself.

"You know what my mother said? She said District Twelve might finally have a winner. But she wasn't talking about me." I turn my head away hiding in my blonde brown locks trying to hide my ashamed and guilty face. That pulls me up short. Did his mother really say that about me? "She was talking about you, Ally." His stare on me burned my cheek. I looked back one time and saw the betrayal in his eyes and knew he wasn't lying about any of this. Austin looked away and stood up from the table refusing to look back at me. "I'm not very hungry." And with that he leaves.

I sit there, thinking about it. The memory of Austin helping me came up. He was the first person, besides my father, to help me. Austin gave me bread to live. And here he is, saying that people know I'm not going to die. I am! I will! I'm not strong like Austin! I will die and I know it's coming to that. Why did his mom think I was going to live? Just because I spend my days in the woods doesn't mean I'm a survivor. Who knows? The Arena could be a blazing hot desert and I won't have the resources I'm used to in the forest.

I glower at a roll on the table. I pick up the napkin, wipe my lips off from grease and leave grumbling. "I'm done too." And exiting the dinner room to my bedroom.

* * *

The snares station is where I decided to go first. I am amazed yet frightened as I watch Cato slice two dummy heads and stab three dummy bodies. Then I turn to the right, seeing the boy from District One throw a spear straight into another dummy…that's fifteen feet away. That's when my faith went down and my heart started sinking. I have no chance against these predators. I mean Tributes. I am fixing up a snare when I see…Glimmer, the girl from One using…a bow and arrow. She enters the arrow and pulls the bow and releases only to hit a dummy right in the head. I remember Haymitch telling both me and Austin not to show our skills but only to do that when our training session comes. But when it comes to me, I have to stay away from the bow.

A few minutes later, Austin is climbing the net, the little girl from Eleven took to steal and hide from Cato as he went bizarre about his knife. Austin loses his grip and plants straight onto his back. I look at the Careers watching him, snickering and laughing like he has no chance. I don't know why, but I go over to help him with some tips. Even if we are going to kill each other soon.

I get to Austin from behind the fake plants in the snare section and whisper to him. "Throw that metal thing over there."

"What?" He asks. His head turns only to see a massive metal boulder with spikes on it. "No, Haymitch said we're not supposed to show our skills." He says groaning at the pain from his back. "I don't care what Haymitch said," I say. "Those guys are looking at you like you're a meal." Austin hesitantly looks at me, the metal boulder and the Gamemakers. "Throw it." I walk away casually back to the snare station and Austin stands up. The Careers are still laughing and also shaking their heads at him, Austin's going to show them up.

He groggily walks to the metal boulder thing that weights…well probably more than me and over a stack of spears and knifes. The weapons tumble over onto the hard floor and my lips curve up. The expression on the Careers face makes me giggle, it showed amazement one some, jealously on others and some even showed surprise, shock and fright. They shrug their shoulders, roll their eyes and walk away to another training station impressed or grouchy.

* * *

After I'm done with about fifty snare traps, some combat training, I see Austin in one of the stations painting his arms into a sort of disguise, that vaguely looks like the branches of a tree. I go over with him and see his work up-close; it's very refined and detailed. It's beautiful.

"Hi." I greet, Austin looks up at me with happy eyes. "Hey." He responds back, Austin's face lightened up when he saw me, or maybe he didn't expect me to be there. I don't know but I think I should just drop it.

"How did you do that?" I ask admiring his work.

"I…uh…I used to ice the cakes down at the bakery." Austin admits. I smile in remembrance. In the window of the bakery, there were some very detailed cakes with swirly green stems and pink flowers covering the white icing. Lily and I used to love walking by there just to admire the cakes. Lily would always ask me what they tasted like, and I always answered with a shrug. Not everyone in the Seam knew what the beautifully frosted cakes tasted like, but no one could afford to taste them or even buy them so they were just for decoration most of the time, if you could afford it.

"Ah." I say.

"I'll show you." Austin says, he waltzed over to the fake tree next to him and put his hand over it, the painting on his hand blended in with the branch. "See?" Austin says. "Wow." I answer staring at the detail intently, and it was made with brown and green swirls of paint, and talent. It's beautiful…it's more than beautiful. I wish I had patience and determination to complete this mastery of artwork.

"Hey, I think you have a shadow." whispers Austin, pointing in the direction with his eyes. I whip around, the little girl who stole Cato's knife is hiding behind a tree, when we interlock stares, and she hides back into the tree shyly. "I think her name's Trish but people call her Rue because she's so small." Austin smiles. My heart stops. Rue. That's a small, yellow flower you can find in the woods, I see them all the time. Lily's named after a flower too that's very unique in the world. The two both have the same build but Trish has tanner skin while Lily has white, pale skin, like me.

Trish reminds me so much of little Lily, my duckling back in District Twelve.

* * *

"Tomorrow they will bring you up, one by one and evaluate you." explains Haymitch. "This is important because higher ratings will mean sponsors. This is the time to show them _everything._" Austin glances at me and subtly, I shake my head. He nods and we continue listening to Haymitch. "There will be a bow, make sure you use it, Allyson." I nod. "Austin, make sure to show your strength." Austin looks down in shame.

"They'll start with District One, so they two of you will go last." Haymitch pauses. "I don't know how else to put this. Make sure they _remember _you."

* * *

I slide down the elevator with Austin by my side. It's "evaluation" time. Austin and I wait in the elevator for our destination, and the little room is silent except the occasional swerving of the moving room. My heart is knocking against my ribcage, I was afraid someone might hear it. For some odd reason, I'm not too thrilled about this. From the side, I can see worried Austin gulp down some spit…or vomit.

When the bell dings, we exit and the doors close together again. I walk slowly out to the bench with our district number on it, now all we do is wait patiently—which I have none of. First, and of course, District One, Glimmer walks into the doors that are guarded by Peacekeepers in that awful stainless, colorless white uniform. Then District Two rolls around and Cato rushes inside, most likely eager to show off his skills and probability of winning the Games.

Time spins around me and before I know it, the intercom comes on, calling my name.

_Allyson Dawson._

Sweat slowly wets my palms and I stand up. Austin and I share a glance and my legs slowly pull me into the room until I hear a voice.

"Hey, Alls?" Austin says. I turn around in confusion, _Alls_? Dallas used to call me that all the time. It was his little pet name for me. I gulp and dare to look him in the eyes, he doesn't know Dallas called me_ Alls_, that word is like my weak point, my weakness.

"Shoot straight." He firmly says and I nod turning back towards the gated entrance. Each closer step I take, the gates come up. When I'm fully by the gate, it slides up all the way so I can go inside. When I enter, the gate rolls down with a thud, slightly making me jump. I stare at the gate for a few seconds knowing there's no going back after this, whatever I do affects my chances of survival in the Games.

I walk past the pole where I saw Rue spying on me and Austin seeing the silver bow and sharp, sheath arrows stacked on top. My eagerness increases my speed a little faster and I look up at the Gamemakers balcony, where laughter and clinks of goblets are heard. A red liquid that similarly looks like blood is inside the glass cups. The neon pink lights start to hurt my temples and make me see bright little dots everywhere I look.

When some Gamemakers see me, they turn their attentions to me and sit there waiting for something amazing to happen. Others laugh and completely block me out as if there was nothing wrong in the world and they don't know I exist.

Ecstatically; I reach the bow and arrows with my heart pumping harder and faster. I run the tips of my fingers against the soft, silver bow and my sweaty palms get a good grip on it. I pick off the first arrow in the row of arrows and observe at how futuristic and Capitol it looks; sharp edges that could kill someone in an instant, engraving of swirly lines on the bow.

I look at the jolly time the judges and Gamemakers are having with their fancy Capitol foods, and talking about how disastrous it is to have a bad groom day and how they hate pink poodles and would prefer and yellow or neon blue dog, it is such nonsense. If they wanted us Tributes to contribute to this, can they at least pay attention to what we have to do? Is it so hard? I wish to ask them but I would get a low score for just giving them a lecture and not some action.

To get their attention, I shout my name and district number in a clear loud voice.

"Allyson Dawson! District Twelve."

The Gamemakers hear me; some scoff and roll their eyes, others look ashamed that they were not looking at my presentation. The corner of my lip goes up a smidge and I turn away—hiding my smirk—and aiming for the dummy twenty feet away. Okay, this string isn't as easy to pull as my father's old bow and arrow. When I pull, my arm shakes a little because of the little muscle I have now. My arm shifts off a little when I release but I'm sure it will be in the target. At least that's what I _was _expecting, an easy target right in the middle of the red circles—meaning the heart—but instead, what I _get_ is an arrow in the padding and hanging near the head. I wasn't even close to the heart of the dummy.

My stomach drops a million miles as I hear the chuckles and snickers of the judges and Gamemakers. They all laugh in unison and continue their nights with laughter and wine. I blink shocked. The tips of my ears burn in humiliation. I am to still and frozen to even move my legs, but I find myself reaching for another arrow. Now that I'm used to the strength of the bow string, I can pull it now, knowing how many seconds I have to reach my target, aim, and release.

I stick in the arrow of the bow and aim again for the dummy's heart. I stare at it, it catches my eyes, and I breathe, slowly.

_Inhale,_

_Exhale._

And I release. My eyes open hoping for an arrow sunk into a heart, and what I want is what I got. There it was, perfectly aimed inside the small dot of the heart. I smile in satisfactory and turn over to stare at the judges reactions. I swear, I almost thought my jaw dropped to the ground when I saw them chatting about Capitol stuff, and sipping wine and stuffing themselves with more food.

Only a few judges were nodding their heads in impressment and most of them chuckling, and smiling with their tiny bird lips not even looking at me. Some of them were even serving themselves food! My fists started to clamp up and my heart starts racing in fury. Anger was rising and I felt my cheeks becoming red and hot, but not in embarrassment. Who do they think they are? I gave them a perfect performance and they treat me like this? I cock my head to observe them again.

A roasted, brown pig with an apple inside its mouth receives everyone's attention, especially the Head Gamemaker.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Who ordered this pig? Who ordered this pig! Hey!" Seneca Crane—Head Gamemaker—shouts in amusement and they slice the half of the pig ready and starving to eat. I blink at them in bewilderment.

So basically, the _dead pig _got more attention than me? It stole the whole show. I'm being upstaged by that dead pig. My heart beats faster and without thinking about my actions, I slide an arrow into the bow, aim and send it straight at the Gamemakers table. Immediately, it becomes silent in the training center at how surprised everyone is, I would be too if I were a snobby Capitol person.

Not one eye isn't lying on me in disbelief; the arrow is planted in the apple stuffed in the pig's mouth. I bow slightly and look everyone in the eyes, their terrified eyes.

"Thank you for your consideration." I mutter and exit the training center without being dismissed.

* * *

**So...how'd ya like it? Love it? I am writing chapter seven now so I should be posting again soon. :) **

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	6. Shocking News at Caesar's

"Are you _crazy?!_" Effie snaps at me. I shrug like it's no big deal, it's just Effie anyways.

"I just got mad." I say calmly, unlike furious Effie. "_Mad_?!" She shrieks; her wig is messed up and makeup is starting to sweat off. "You realize that your actions reflect badly on _all _of us, not just you." She spits, trilling her Capitol voice. Effie, Cinna, Austin, Portia, and I were in the living room of our penthouse because they wanted to hear about Austin and I's individual session. When I did tell about mine, Effie got upset real fast, faster than President Snow can say "_May the odds be ever in your favor._"

"They just want a good show. It's fine." Cinna backs me up.

Effie scoffs and rolls her eyes. "How about it's just bad manners, _Cinna_! How about that?" She shakes her little finger blanketed by the white glove at him.

I see Haymitch in the corner of my eye walk down the swirly stairwell ever so slowly. "Well, finally! I hope you noticed we have a serious situation!" Effie screams when she sees Haymitch waltz in. I expected him to give me a glare and shake his head in disappointment but instead he gives me a quirky smile and thumbs up. This makes my heart jump because Haymitch is never this nice. I finally made him give a smile in impressment, not in sarcasm or his drunken smiles.

"Nice shooting, sweetheart." He muses as Effie purses her lips into an even tighter line.

"What did they do when you shot the apple?" asks Haymitch slumping down into an open chair.

"Well, they looked pretty startled." I answer smirking at the memory as everyone stood silent when the apple went straight into the wall.

"Oh! Yeah!" Haymitch laughs and I smile again. Haymitch is actually laughing, and not in a mean way or anything. I could see Cinna chuckle softly at my side, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, I would just get a low score and would die without sponsors, but that's all right. I am going to be dead either way.

"Now, what did you say? 'Thanks for...'" He waits for me to finish the sentence.

"'Thanks for your consideration.'" I laugh too. It was pretty funny; I couldn't help but not laugh. Haymitch chuckles and bursts into fits of laughter. "Genius! So genius!" Haymitch grins.

"I don't think we're going to find this funny if the Gamemakers decide to take it out-" Effie starts into another lecture about how wrong this was until Haymitch stops her.

"On who? Ally? Austin?" Austin looks up at the mention of his name. "I think they already have." Haymitch says. "Loosen your corset, have a drink." Effie glares at Haymitch; she sure wouldn't want to turn out like Haymitch…no one does.

"I would have given anything, to see your little performance." Haymitch looks at me. I beam and suddenly, pride and satisfaction runs through me making this the best day since I got to the Capitol.

* * *

"As you know, the Tributes were rated on a scale of one to twelve after three days of careful evaluation." The mini Caesar Flickerman explains on the television. "The Gamekeepers would like to acknowledge that it was an exceptional…" I tune out on his introduction because I already know what is going to happen. I tell Austin to subtly let me know when District Twelve is up.

I stare at the floor thinking. Should I have done that little stage at my session? What if I don't get a high number? Will Haymitch be disappointed? Maybe that would have been the last time I did see Lily and Dallas. I sure hope my mother is doing all right with Lily. I wish that Lily wasn't reaped; I wish I hadn't volunteered, but poor weak Lily would have been knocked out in the first round of the Games. She's helpless, as I am to all these five foot ten Tributes.

It feels like hours until Austin uses his hips to nudge me. Something tingly rushes through the spot he touched but it fades so I don't have time to remember how if felt. "District Twelve, Austin Moon." Caesar leaves a moment of silence to make people watching this wait in suspense and force our heartbeats to increase. Austin leans forward, almost touching the edge of his seat and they say his number.

"A score of…eight." Portia gasps Cinna smiles and Effie looks pleased as well as Haymitch. "Austin!" Everyone is saying, along with, "Bravo."

"We can work with that." Effie smiles. Austin exhales in relief as if he's been holding his breath the entire time.

"And finally, from District Twelve, Allyson Dawson." As Caesar says my name, my picture is followed. I stare at the television and could feel cringes and stares at me in sorrow. I sit up, looking at Caesar, my heart knocking against my ribcage, and I wait for my low score to show up. I shuffle my feet and twiddle my thumbs in anticipation. I begin to hold my breath as Austin did.

"With a score of…" Caesar starts, he is about to say the number, when he does a double take at the number.

_It's a low score, it's so bad. _I think until he says it.

"Eleven." Effie, Portia and someone else gasp. I realize the 'someone else' was me that gasped; I look down at the floor and grin largely. I thought they hated me after that stunt I pulled off. "Allyson!" Effie gapes at me in shock, showing pleasure. She screams and hoots. "Outstanding!" Cinna applauds. "Yes!" Haymitch says. I don't say anything; I am still letting everything he said sinking into my brain.

"Congrats, Ally." Austin says, looking shocked as well. "I thought they hated me!" I smile. "They must've liked your guts." Haymitch says.

"To Allyson Dawson, the Girl on Fire!" Cinna toasts, raising a goblet of wine and everyone joins in—and of course, Haymitch too.

* * *

Portia, Effie and Cinna were chatting about some jewelry and how much they cost when Haymitch comes in; he's never early to dinner. "Haymitch! Join us! We're having your favorite for dinner!" perks Effie. "Don't mind if I do." says Haymitch sitting down at the table. I notice Austin's not here, why?

"Where's Austin?" I ask Haymitch.

"In his room." I look at him confused but Haymitch starts to talk and I don't have time to ask. "Now, listen, tomorrow's the last day. And they let us work with our own Tributes right before the Games, so you and I will be going down at nine o' clock."

I can't help not doing this without Austin; I need him there with me. I don't know when I started to feel like this but…I suddenly feel weird around him, like I feel the need, the urge to impress him and…I am craving those soft pink lips of his. I shake my head clearing the thoughts.

"What about him?" I ask.

"He says he wants to be trained on his own from now on." Haymitch says. Fury races in my veins. "What?" I snap.

"This kind of thing does happen at this point. There is only one winner right?" Haymitch says biting into bread. I stare at the table, glowering at another roll. Betrayal is the only emotion that I feel. But the only way to feel betrayed is to start feeling trust. First time I trusted Austin was when he gave me a chance to live. Then he insisted Haymitch should know my hunting skills, how could I not start to trust him? I guess by all means…we_ are_ Tributes. And trust was a part of no agreement.

"We should have chocolate covered strawberries." Effie says, trying to cut the tension running through the air. Everyone nods in agreement as I look down at the same roll but feeling more hurt now.

* * *

As I'm getting ready for my interview, my prep team is applying my makeup and fixing my hair. The prep team tells me to undress; I pull off all my clothes and stand there awkwardly, feeling the slight breeze from the air conditioning. Once that was over, Cinna walks in with an excited smile. "Close your eyes." He immediately says. I do as told and feel a silken cloth run over my legs, and my stomach up to my shoulders. I slump down because the dress must weigh forty pounds, and I'm as light as a feather.

Cinna has me step into three inch heels and my calves are trembling at this massive weight. "Can I open my eyes now, Cinna?" I ask wearily.

"You may." He says. I can hear a grin in his tone.

My eyes flutter open and in the mirror stand a girl who has not come from District Twelve but from another world. Makeup done drastically, hair fixed into curly segments of her locks, glitter shines on her skin and her eyes flash. The dress…I cannot explain my words for it. The reflective gems bounce off from the lights and back onto the dress, it's so beautiful.

"Twirl for me." Cinna orders and I spin around in a circle, flashing the fake flames—that is flickering at the hem of the dress—for which I am known for.

"Amazing." Cinna begins.

"I don't feel amazing." I say.

"Don't you know how beautiful you look?" Cinna asks astonished at my response.

"No! And I don't know how to make people like me! How do you make people like you?" I ask, that feeling of staring in awe at my dress diminishes. I am a little angry at the fact that I have to impress some people just to get stupid sponsors.

"Well you made me like you." Cinna says, with a hint of a smile.

"That's different, I wasn't trying." I snap and my voice breaking. I am not the most social person, I am a little mean, but at the same time I'm shy and people never take notice in me. I am just the odd one out when it comes to being social and making friends.

"Exactly, just be you, yourself. I will be there the entire time." He starts to stand up and walk towards me. "Pretend you are speaking to me the whole time, okay?" He pushes a strand of my hair out of my face.

I nod feeling a sign of relief. I always have this feeling that the only one I trust right now is Cinna, Austin's not a choice and I'm not sure about Haymitch. "Okay." I say with the tips of my lips curving up slightly.

* * *

I wait in line for my turn—for my interview that is going global around Panem—and it is going to be awhile since I'm District Twelve. Glimmer begins first and she walks out with her big frilly, mid length dress and is given an interview, the buzzer goes off and we move on

Each one of the Tributes gives off a vibe to the crowd about themselves, like Glimmer, was sexy, Marvel was funny and quirky, Cato was ferocious and scary, the fox-faced girl from Five was sly, smart. I waited patiently, tapping my toes, as the districts slipped by.

I almost jumped because Thresh was walking out. Time really does fly, as they say in the Capitol. Three minutes passed again and Trish fluttered out with her fake wings and her gossamer costume. "I'm very fast and hard to catch." explains Trish.

Before I knew it, a man who worked behind the set grabs my arm and leads me to the front where I just walk out and pretend I'm the happiest girl on the planet. My legs start trembling again and I sigh shakily.

I hear my name being called by Caesar. "From District Twelve, you know her as The Girl on Fire!" Applauses clap. "But we know her as the lovely Allyson Dawson!" I walk out in a daze, a dream, like I'm gliding and not walking towards Caesar. Applause and whistles cheer me on as I fly out. I shake his outstretched hand and we sit down on the shiny, white seats, his voice is inaudible and I stare off into the crowd, hundreds…thousands of people are here tonight and I'm only searching for one of the thousands. Cinna.

I look back at Caesar who is waiting for a response from me.

"What?" A round of laughter enters the crowd as I ask the dumbest question.

"I think someone's a little nervous." Caesar smiles adding the effect of his bright blue hair, he chuckles and repeats the question again.

"I said that was quite an entrance you made the other day, at the Tribute Parade? Would you care to share your experience?" My mouth has gone dry as a cotton ball but I say the first thing that comes to my mind.

"Well, I was hoping…I wouldn't burn to death." I say and laughter enters the stadium again. My eyes wander around for Cinna as the audience is smiling and or laughing. I don't see his familiar face.

"When you came out of that chariot, I have to say, my heart stopped." I just looked at Caesar. "Did any of you experience this as well?" He asks the audience. They all nod and murmur in agreement, Cinna's face smiles. I see him, suddenly, an energy booster ran throughout me like I have more confidence now that he's here.

"So did mine." I say with a giggle. Everyone chuckles in unison.

"Now tell me about the flames, are they real?" Caesar asks.

"Yes." I lie, if I say no, then it would not mean anything to anyone in the Capitol and they will think I'm just a liar, we wouldn't want that to happen.

I grin mischievously at the crowd, and they eagerly present themselves with a quick smile back. "In fact, I'm wearing them today. Would you care to see?" Cinna nods subtly from the audience that now is the time. Everyone screams 'yes!' but Caesar showed some hesitation. "Wait, wait, wait." Caesar swiftly says. "Is it safe?" He asks and I give him a warm smile and nod. "Yes."

He laughs along. "What do you think, folks?" He starts laughing again as the audience starts to clap, shout, or whistle for me to show my flames as The Girl on Fire. "I think that's a yes!" Caesar trills.

I stand up. So what's supposed to happen is when I twirl, the fake flames from my dress will appear? I really hope Cinna made it work, if not, people will see me as a joke. I walk towards the center of the stage and begin twirling. I hear the flames flickering on my dress and I could tell the reaction was immediate. I keep spinning around and around in a circle, letting the flames engulf me.

I almost fall off my heels when Caesar grabs my arm. "Steady, steady." He helps me sit down and he claps. "Lovely! Very lovely!"

When the audience begins to mellow down from my spin of fire, Caesar tells me. "That was really something, Allyson that was something. That was something. Thank you for that." He smiles. He adjusts himself more comfortably into the chair and says he has one more question for me. This shouldn't be too hard.

"It's about your sister." Caesar grabs my palm and clutches it. I look down at the floor, Lily. Of course they had to put something semimetal to me in this discussion. Everyone in the city circle is so silent and hushed that you could hear a pin drop from miles away.

"We were all very moved, I think, when you volunteered for her at the Reaping." I look at Caesar, broken-hearted. I can't stand it without Lily. It's so hard being thousands of miles away from the ones you love but somehow I managed to hold up and be strong.

"Did she come and say goodbye to you?" asks Caesar. Tears threaten to spill out my eyes. "Yes." I quiver, my lip is trembling. "She did." Memories flash back at Lily's screams at the Reaping, first when she got pulled away by Dallas and by Peacekeepers.

"And…what did you say you her in the end?" prompts Caesar gently. I could tell some people are crying their eyes out because of my sob story about Lily.

I try to think of what to say. The memory comes back.

Her tears flooding down her face, her red cheeks, bushy blonde hair, the warmth of her hug, when she gave me the Mockingjay pin. Our fright. I remember feeling so shocked that it was Lily's name that got pulled out of tons of slips. Her little duck tail as everyone moved out of her way. My voice screaming to volunteer. Effie's bright wig, her purple glove waving around in the glass bowl grasping Lily's name. The silence in the town square. My mother staring at me with solemn puppy eyes. Dallas pulling Lily out of my reach when she screams for me. It's almost like I'm reliving it again.

Be honest, be honest, I tell myself. I swallow hard and answer. "I told her I would try to win." I begin softly. "That I would try to win for her."

"Of course you did." Caesar squeezes my hand. "And try you will." He kisses my hand wishing me the best of luck. "Ladies and gentlemen, from District Twelve, Allyson Dawson, The Girl on Fire!" He outstretched my arm and everyone applauds for me. I am still in a daze after that story-telling. _That's enough for today._

I walk back in, hearing applauds still clapping even long after I was gone. Effie runs to me and grins. "You did it, darling. That was incredible." She hushes. "Thank you." I say, still lost in the Reaping memory.

"Nice job, sweetheart." says Haymitch. I smile when I see him. "Thank you." I say again. "Nice dress, too." He compliments and turns to Effie who's awaiting a compliment as well. "Not yours." He muses and Effie slaps his arm with a glare locked on him. She frowns creasing her powdered makeup. I'm still in a trance for Austin's first part of the interview. He jokes with Caesar and all I can see them doing is laughing and their jaws moving up and down.

They compare the Capitol with District Twelve. The first thing Austin mentions is the showers and after he asks Caesar if he smells like roses, they get a whiff of each other and chuckle. They crack up the audience's funny bone.

Finally Caesar asks if has a girlfriend back home.

"No, no, not really." Austin says, giving an unconvincing shake of his head.

"No? I don't believe it for a second! Look at that face!" says Caesar, gesturing to Austin. Well, it isn't a lie, he is a package. "Handsome man like you! Austin, tell me." Caesar forces with a light smile on his face.

Austin sighs, unsure. "Well, there…uh…there's this one girl that I've had a crush on forever." Austin starts, Caesar smiles knowingly. "But I don't think she actually recognized me until the Reaping." Sounds of sympathy come from the crowd, something they can relate too.

"I'll tell you what, Austin. You go out there, and you win this thing, and when you get home, she'll _have _to go out with you." Caesar encouragingly says. "Right, folks?" The City Circle laughs and whistles when they see still Austin's sorrow face.

"Thanks, but I…uh…I don't think winning's going to help me at all." He says.

"And why not?" asks a mystified Caesar.

Austin blushes a bright red, turning him the color of a tomato. What? Who is this girl? I ask myself.

He hesitates and answers what's on everybody's mind. "Because…uh…because…she came here with me."

* * *

**Hi! So I updated, quickly this time haha! And by the way...HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN! I got a bucketful of candy :) It was awesome. Anyways, onto the responses :)**

**honesthannah: Thanks! I love the Hunger Games too, I'm obsessed :P**

**That's all for today :P Well I am counting the days...20 FLIPPING DAYS UNTIL CATCHING FIRE! I am waiting. I will see it RIGHT after school is over and I will beg my mum to take me. ;p hehe. Anyways please review, just click on the box below, type a review, something nice or something I need to work on, and I will update again! ;) You guys rock. **


	7. Last Advice and Feeling Betrayed

The cameras keep Austin's face locked with the screen to make every word he said sink in. And it did. I am glaring at the television screen right now feeling so betrayed, confused, hurt and livid. I push my lips together and stare at the floor, hoping to conceal my emotions bubbling in.

"Well that's bad luck." Caesar says, with a real edge of pain in his voice. "Yep, it is." says Austin sadly. "And I wish you all the best of luck." says Caesar. Austin shakes hands with him. "Thank you." He chokes out. "Austin Moon!" Caesar says and they release him.

As Austin walks out, I clench my fists up hard, that it's turning almost white. I couldn't conceal my anger anymore. How could he just say one day, he loves me and then just say he doesn't want to work with me! I am feeling much confused now. Everything is spinning at once and I can't control it. I can hear Lily's scream first, then I can see Dallas's smile next, after is Haymitch's scowl, Effie's purple wig, Cinna saying I'm The Girl On Fire, Caesar's laugh, Cato's glare, Austin confessing his love. It's all too fast for me. I can't grasp everything if it's revolving in my eyes and blinding me.

Finally, my brain picks an emotion that is burning my cheeks and the tips of my ears. Anger. I see Austin with his goofy smile, and I slam my palms into his chest. I'm not that strong, but I seemed to push him straight into the wall. "What the hell was that?!" I snap. "You don't talk to me and then you say you have a crush on me?!" I use my arms to keep him locked in the walls, he squirms but I push harder. "You say you want to train alone? Is that how you want to play?" I shout. Effie's hysterical screams echo the halls as Cinna and Haymitch are pulling me off of Austin. "Stop it!" They plead. "Let's start _right _now!" I scream.

"Hey!" Haymitch snaps standing between the two of us before I charge into him again. "He did you a favor!" Haymitch shouts.

"He made me look weak!" I shout back.

"He made you look desirable, which in your case, can't hurt, sweetheart." says Haymitch.

"He's right, Ally." Cinna agrees.

"Of course I'm right." spits Haymitch.

"Now, I can sell the star-crossed lovers from District Twelve…" starts Haymitch. _What? Star-crossed_ lovers_? Where did that come from_? I think.

"We are _not _star-crossed lovers." I snap again.

"It's a television show!" Haymitch screams. "And being in love with that boy might just get you sponsors, which could save your damn life!"

I sigh furiously knowing he's right but I refuse to be wrong.

"Okay, Austin, why don't you get out of here?" Haymitch orders sharply, still angered with me. "Maybe I can deliver you both in one piece tomorrow."

"Manners." Effie shakes her head as she walks by. I can see disappointment in Cinna's eyes walking with Effie. No. The one person I trusted is disappointed in me.

* * *

The final thought runs through my mind after thinking of where I will be twenty-four hours from now. _I can't sleep. _I swallow hard and run through many apologies in my mind to say to Austin but nothing that sounds like me comes to mind. I realize that I was wrong. Haymitch was right, if it wasn't for Austin, I'd be forgotten with a quick snap of a finger, the only thing that people will know me by is fire and my eleven training score.

Haymitch was right though, because I did survive the interview but what was I really? A dumb, silly girl spinning around in some stupid shiny dress. The only substance I had was with Lily and that moment of silence. I was just silly and shiny and forgettable. That was until Austin confessed his love for me. Sponsors will feel bad for us and our love breaking. That could save my 'damn' life, as Haymitch said. We will have admirers and a strong reaction to everyone. We will be powerful and there is a possibility I will go back home, but everything will be different.

Will I never stop owing Austin?

I sit up from the bed. I can't sleep anymore; I just need a different view for just a few moments. I throw on a robe to cover my bedtime clothes and walk out barefooted, the cold floor stings my feet but I continue to walk to the roof. I see Austin sitting in the roof. He's staring down at all the cheers and the flashing lights, his adrenaline rushing too.

"Can't sleep either?" I ask sitting next to him.

"Hey." He yawns and smiles.

"Can't sleep?" I ask again and he scoffs.

"No, of course not." He turns his attention from me back down to the city circle crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people waiting for the Games to begin.

"I'm sorry I went after you." I apologize.

He faces me and daggers me in the eyes. I expected him to go on a rampage but he's not like that. Instead he says, "You know, I meant that as a compliment."

I smile, he forgives me. "I know." I giggle softly.

We sit in silence as to what awaits tomorrow. I can't help but thinking what the Arena setting will be. A marsh? Ocean shore? Desert? Swamp? It scares me, the thought of going into a new place, with new resources and probably not the evergreen trees I love.

I hear the roars of the cheering squad below us. "Listen to them." I say.

"Yeah." Austin says, lost in another world.

I glance at him, he's clearly thinking hard about something else. I know what he's thinking about anyways. Tomorrow.

"I-I just don't want them to change me." He starts. Who would change him?

"How would they change you?" I ask puzzled.

"I don't know." sighs Austin. "They'd turn me into something I'm not." He looks down at the crowd again. "I just don't want to be another piece in their games, you know?" He asks.

"You mean you're not going to kill anyone?"

"No, I mean, I am sure I would, just like anyone else when the time came….but…I just keep wishing that I could think of a way to show them that they don't own me." He states. "If I'm going to die, I want to still be me." I stare down at the tiles, letting everything he said sink into my brain. "Does that make any sense?" Austin asks. I nod. Of course it does. "Yeah." I murmur. It's funny, I'm thinking about what the Arena is and Austin is worrying about keeping his identity as 'Austin Moon', not 'some Tribute who was sliced by another Tribute.'

"I just can't afford to think like that." I respond through a whisper. "I have my sister."

"Yeah, I know." He answers solemnly.

I have to think positive if I want to return to Lily and back home to my woods again. I just can't think like that. We sit in awkward silence. I scan him and he glances at me. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." Austin looks at me with his hazel eyes.

"See you tomorrow." I say.

Austin leaves to go back to sleep and I am left there, waiting for what is to become of us.

* * *

"They'll put all kinds of stuff right in front, right in the mouth of the Cornucopia." Haymitch begins. My eyes are glued to the sliding motion of the moving elevator. "There'll even be a bow there." I snap out of my trance and look when I hear there's something there I can use. "_Don't_ go for it." He instructs.

"Why not?" I question this. Isn't the point of this to kill and survive? What I need to survive is my bow and arrows.

"It's a bloodbath. They're trying to pull you in. That's not your game." Haymitch says. I quickly turn my attention back to the sliding of the elevator. "You turn, run, find high ground, and look for water. Water's your new best friend."

I nod understanding.

"Don't step off that pedestal early or they'll blow you sky high." Haymitch says.

"I won't." I answer.

The elevator stops and the doors open, blinding my eyes to the bright blue sky and the shining sun. We take five steps and Haymitch grabs me by the shoulder, with a serious face. "Ally, you can do this." I nod; no words come out of my mouth. We look at the hovercraft, waiting for me.

"Thanks." I smile slightly. Haymitch pats my cheeks and I squeeze his shoulder. I slowly move towards the hovercraft, the engine switched on ready to take flight into the air.

I enter and get seated. A Peacekeeper buckles me in and walks to the front of the plane. I am waiting for lift off until a female Peacekeeper is shooting something into little Trish's arm. Her arm lights up, beeps and there is a big lump left in her arm. I cringe; my heartbeat doesn't need to go faster than it already is.

"Give me your arm." The lady Peacekeeper instructs.

"What is it?" I ask. She grabs my arm anyway and sharp pain is left where the needle poked my skin. "Your tracker." The lady Peacekeeper says before going onto Clove's arm. Okay, I remember now. Now the Gamemakers will trace my whereabouts. Wouldn't want to lose a Tribute, now would they?

* * *

Peacekeepers lead me into the Launch Room where Cinna is smiling sadly; I sniffle and run to him. We hug, his warm arms embrace me. I don't ever want to leave it here; it's so warm in his presence. He's actually a person I don't regret meeting at all. Cinna lets me go and I am frigid now. But then my arms start shaking and I feel my eyes wide in alert. Fear. I know exactly what this is. Fright. So many words for it but I call it terrified, which I'm feeling right now.

"Here you go." Cinna helps me undress into a black tee-shirt, some simple tawny pants, brown belt, and a weather jacket. He does my hair into a simple trademark down my back and something gold flickers on my shirt. I see the Mockingjay pin, I gasp; look at Cinna who has a finger to his lip. "Thank you." I quiver.

I remember when I was at the black market, just looking for some yarn for Lily when I saw the flickering light of the Mockingjay pin. I gave it to her for protection but instead she gave it back to me so I can win the Games. And that's exactly what I plan to do.

Cinna adjusts the weather jacket on me, and zips it up.

_Thirty Seconds_

The time is ticking; I gasp again and look towards the glass cylinder, where the doors await me. My lips are parched and my hands are shaking hard. Cinna grabs my ice hands into his hot ones. I feel a little better knowing Cinna thinks of me as a friend as I do him. I only have five friends in the world, Dallas, Cinna, Haymitch, Lily, and Austin. I will die with five friends, ugh! What do I think? Am I going to die or not? I don't know at this point. All I am doing is standing as still as a statue and waiting for time to pass to I can just get this over with. Then I will find out if I die or not.

"I'm not allowed to bet, but if I could, I'd bet on you." Cinna says softly. He kisses my cheek and I clench my jaws scared, and then I soften and feel the tips of my ears burn; Cinna is the best person in the world next to Dallas and Lily. Our foreheads meet and we breathe the same air, I close my eyes enjoying this moment of feeling safe and happy. For the last time before I enter the Games.

_Twenty Seconds_

I pant, because little breathes are coming out anymore. I dart the cylinder, not ready to leave yet. Cinna notions it's time. I make my way to the entry way of the cylinder, slowly, hoping the Games would be canceled. We all know that's not happening, to many Capitol people are hopped up on the Games. Except me.

_Ten Seconds_

The glass cylinder is just feet away from me. My boots stomp every little step I take, so I know my feet are protected, along with the skintight socks that have a flexible rubber sole with treads. I am gliding again, as I was at the Caesar Show, this all feels like a dream, only a really bad one. I step inside the tube, the doors slide close blocking out all the noise from the whirring of machines; I look at Cinna with scared, frightened eyes. My hands are shaking again.

Cinna nods, mentally saying that he knows I will be fine. The glass tube slowly moves me upwards and I can't help but look up feeling curious. I am in darkness for at least fifteen seconds before the sun greets me, the surroundings are amazing, no beach, no desert, and no swamp. Good old evergreen trees, something I can climb. I look around seeing all the other twenty-four Tributes anxiously waiting on the pedestals. I can hear Haymitch's instructions run through my mind.

_You turn, run, find high ground, and look for water. Water's your new best friend._

I believe I am going to follow these instructions until I see the bow and arrows in the mouth of the Cornucopia, stashed with other weapons and survival bags. I have my heart set on that bow now.

A loud booming voice engulfs all of us twenty-four Tributes. Words I didn't want to hear my whole life.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games begin!"

* * *

**Hiya! So whatcha think? :) I am writing chapter eight so it should be done soon. Anyways, here's my responses.**

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	8. 74th Annual Hunger Games

Sixty seconds. That's how long we're supposed to remain on the metal circles before a gong releases us, cuing us to start the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games. If we step off the pedestal, then the land mines will blow you sky high, as Haymitch worded it.

Sixty seconds to take in a ring of Tributes all equally distant from the Cornucopia. I see the mouth spilling with weapons, survival packs, everything to give us life here that the woods cannot provide, like clothing or a water bottle. Spread around the Cornucopia is other stuff to, like a tent, or boxes of more weapons, or even medicine to cure you. I see the tent knowing that I would get murdered in the blood bash if I were to get it, it is way too far.

We're on flat land, no mountain tops or anything. I could run to the bow and arrows, quickly grab a survival pack, and make enough time to run back into the woods without being killed, I am pretty swift runner. I am faster than any of the girls in my school, only a few beat me in distance races but this is like a forty-yard race, I can do this, this is what made me fast, because fate knew I'd need that bow today and now.

I probably won't be an only target because there could be some other helpless girl that the Careers will rip apart and I will alas be with the silver sheath bow and arrows.

Haymitch has never seen me run, so maybe if he did see me run, he'd tell me to go for that bow and get the hell out of there, which I promise I will do after I get a survival pack, maybe I don't need a survival pack. I can hunt food with my bow and set snares without anyone's help, except Dallas's. Since that's the only weapon that's handy and familiar to me, my heart's set on it.

I start stretching my legs, warming up for my most glorious run ever when I see Austin. He's five Tributes away from me, a fairly large distance, and his head is shaking. Already knows what will happen but I refuse to think like him. I want that bow and I will get it, as needy as that sounds.

I cock my head at him and his head continues to shake, side to side, not up to down. Maybe it's an illusion; the sun is shining bright into my eyes, making it hard to see. My eyes turn to the red numbers on the Cornucopia counting down from eight seconds.

_7_

_6_

_5_

_4_

_3_

_2_

_1_

The gong releases us and I begin to run towards the silver flickering in the sun when I see Austin dashing straight into the sea of evergreen trees. That's when I pause, and slow down, to an immediate stop. What should I do? I already lost my chance for the bow and arrows when Austin stunned me by actually following Haymitch's instructions. I stand stiff and my head slowly gives me a view of what's going on, like heads being chopped off, arms and legs being sliced, stabbings to the stomach. The little kids, the weaklings getting beaten to death. It's brutal.

I can see the Careers already forming an alliance. The Districts One and Two are together now, as usual. They are creating a mess of blood staining the green grass and their jackets. The boy from one is bashing several times into a little girl's head forming specks of red on his face. I shudder at the disturbing scene; my eyes wander around desperately as I think of what my next move is. My first move never happened so my plans aren't working out now.

A girl Tribute runs and catches my eyes of another survival pack. My eyes light up and I charge straight for the pack, my life depends on it. As I run, the girl from one is stabbing a little kid to death and my legs start to run faster. Adrenaline is pumping harder and faster through my veins, my fingers barely make the snatch. I pant and run into the forest, until my I can't take running anymore and my legs give up.

The boy from nine is holding a deadly looking weapon in his hands that crosses between an ax and a razor blade when the girl from two, Clove sees me staggering for my dear life. She's holding a dozen knives at once in her hands. She throws a knife into the boy from nine's back and he collapses to the ground. I back up with my legs and she gets another knife ready, and positioned into her hand, I've seen her in training. She never misses. And I'm her next target.

She tosses the knife towards me and reflexively, I hold up the pack to protect my head. She groans as she missed my head and starts running to me. I stand up and whip around, running full-speed for the woods. I turn back for a slight second and see the corpse bodies lying still with weapons and blood covering them. I continue to run, run away from this horrible nightmare.

The girl from five, Fox-face, I can see her red hair in the distance, and I pull my legs to a stop too late, and we bounce into one another and fall to the forest floor. She stares at me with terrified eyes. We hesitate what to do for a moment, which of us is to make the first move? Finally she swiftly stands up and runs the opposite direction of me. Right after her, I stand up and run the other way from her. I run north, what I think is north and I just keep running until my instincts tell me it's almost safe again.

I keep running downhill until I see another Tribute fifteen yards to my left and I turn right. A big long stretch of bushes stands in my way but I don't let that hold me back. I push myself into the green when I lose balance and tumble downwards. The ground slopes down making it hard to stay upright which shows why I'm still rolling down. Another fifteen seconds comes around and I've finally reached flat land. I groan at the pain coming from splinters that stuck onto me on the way down. My face plants into the dirt and I stand up brushing myself off and pulling stickers out of my jacket and I run up the slanted hill.

When I've come up that hill, sounds of insects, birds, and animal sounds fill my ears. I can feel my heart pumping hard and fast. The sound of adrenaline throbbing in my ears says I should stop running. I sit on a tree stump and wait for my heart to slow down, I've never ran that fast in my whole life but my life depended on it and if I couldn't run, then I'd be up in the skies, as my mother told me when I was younger. She said that my father was in the clouds, or in the moon or the sun staring down at us, watching over us and our safety. She said he was an angel.

I shake my head, clearing my thoughts and pull off the pack that's hung over my shoulder. I zip it open and inside holds a rope, which can be good for tents or snares. A little smile crosses my face at my first survival need. I also find…a water bottle! In no time to think, I open the cap, and I don't see any liquid sloshing around inside. I tip it upside down to see if maybe there is something left but nothing is inside. Now I've really got to find water now, before I die of dehydration. One of the things Atala, the trainer mentioned.

I also find a weather jacket, something that I guess could be helpful, and a metal slinky, a toy that is used to entertain little ones, I've seen some kids in the Seam messing around with one of these. I look at it and nod. It could be stretched to make a fishing tool or a tent since its metal wire. I dig in the sack for more items and I find a little cylinder, I flip the cap open to find about ten matches inside the capsule.

_Boom_

The first boom startled me and I dropped some matches on the ground. I realize that it's the boom of the cannon. Each shot represents the mark of another fallen Tribute. The blood party down at the Cornucopia must've ended. The hovercrafts are picking them up, I bet. I allow myself to pause looking inside my pack to count the number of shots the cannon announced. Two…three…four…on and on until it reaches eleven. I sigh. Eleven dead in the first few hours. Only 13 of us are alive and ready to play. I push a strand of hair out of my face and blink. I suddenly start to think about Austin. I'm overwhelmed by the fact that he could be brutally murdered, his skin white and pale, dry blood on the tips of his colorless lips.

I stop thinking about him. Maybe it's best this way, if he's gone. Austin had no confidence he was going home and I beat the pleasure of having to stab something into his guts. Maybe it's best if he's out of this for good. I won't have to kill him and he won't have to kill me. It's all good.

My shoulders slump down in exhaustion, when I see a butterfly. Its dark black wings with the tint of a navy blue fluttering, going in, then out. I smile and reach down my finger. It hops aboard, and I swear I can see its eyes on me. I smile. It flies away and off my finger. A butterfly is good luck and everlasting life.

I stand up and continue my journey. Suddenly, I'm in hunter's mode. My eyes catch a pile of green moss, and I stuff my hands into the dirt. It soft and wet, this means water is near. I keep walking until the sound of water being sloshed around catches my ears. A small pond is above and I run towards it, filling my dry lips and thirsty taste buds with some drink. I open the flap of my sack and dig around for my water bottle, when I find it, I flip open the cap and pour some lake water into it.

Later, I set up a snare. First I sharpen a stick, I take some branches from a tree and position it around the tree, use a rubber band I found in my sack to keep it steady, and when I touch it, the sharpened stick should be holding my dinner. I run up and hide behind a tree waiting for something small to come around. An hour passes and a small frog is caught in my deadly snare that was taught to me by Dallas and I pull it off the stick.

I make a small fire, not to wear flames appear but enough to cook a frog. I look around for other Tributes just in case so I don't die cooking something and something stabs me in the back. In my survival pack, there was a piece of plastic and I use that to wrap my frog and I take a leg, just for now to eat but I save the rest for later.

Night takes over the sunlight of the sky and I know it's soon time to find a place to rest. Already, I start to climb on a tree, I place the sleeping bag I received in my backpack on the arm of the tree, and sit down and it's comfy enough. Fatigue takes over me now that I'm rested in place and I use the rope to tie around me and the arm of the tree so I don't go falling off and blowing my cover. I look around; making sure no one saw me. All there is is the sounds of birds and the movement of animals. I sigh softly, and lay my head back. My eyes close slowly and before I knew it…I'm asleep.

Breakline

The sound of the anthem wakes me up. My eyes search around for danger, and nothing is there so I calm down. The black sky shows the symbol of the Capitol, below it something reads, _the Fallen. _The first to show is the girl from District Three, so that means the Careers survived, no surprise there. Then the boy from four, the boy from five, the fox-faced girl made it, both Tributes from six and seven, the boy from eight and the boy from nine, who I watched get killed by Clove. I run through my fingers and there's one more dead.

Is it Austin? It can't be. Well he did just run off and not grab anything to use to survive. But the picture of the girl from ten appears.

The pictures disappear, the music ends and the sound of night resumes, the anthem ends and chirps from birds continue. Nothing for District Eleven and Twelve…so this means Austin's alive. I feel a small smile creep up on my face. I shake my head; I need to get that weird feeling of him out of me. I take my mind off of the thought of that….bushy blonde hair, hazel eyes and tone body….

SMACK!

I mentally smack myself for even thinking like that. I force my body to slow down my heartbeat and I begin to close my eyes, my head leans back and I think about what's to come of tomorrow.

Until, my nose senses smoke, like fire smoke. My eyebrows furrow into another and I look behind the tree, I can see dark yellow and bright orange flames flickering in the distance. I scoff and roll my eyes. Who does that? It could get you exposed the next deadliest Tributes and you're doomed.

I don't feel sorry for that person because some people can't help not being stupid. I mean, that should've been the _first _thing that their mentor told them to do. I'm lucky to have had Haymitch.

My body tenses when I hear a high-pitched scream in the distance. Seconds after the scream, the cannon boom, so twelve are dead in the first eight hours. I feel so sad for the parents of whom children's got killed in the bloodbath.

Laughter, snickers and hoots of achievement are heard and I realize that it wasn't someone like Thresh who killed, it was the Careers.

"Did you see the look on her face?" says Cato with a chuckle. "How stupid can you get?"

"A fire?" says the boy from One.

"Oh, no! Please don't kill me! Oh, no!" Mocks Glimmer in a little girl voice which is followed by a laugh.

"That's actually a good impression!" Cato says. He sees someone and calls for them. "Hey, lover boy."

I almost fall out of my tree, that can't be…can it? No, I chose not to believe it is. That was until I saw the bushy blonde hair glistening against the night moon.

"You sure she went this way?" asks Cato harshly.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Yep. It's true. The voice belongs to him.

"You better be." Cato snaps.

"Yeah, that was her snare we found back there." Shoot! It must've slipped my mind to erase my tracks of the snare. But Austin shouldn't have sold me out! I trusted him. I need to stop thinking he's the good guy, when he's not! Never, ever trust him again. Ever.

Austin continues to walk in the direction of where Clove and the boy from One were heading and I could hear Glimmer and Cato talking about Austin.

"Are you sure we shouldn't just kill him now?" asks Glimmer who is clinging onto Cato.

"Nah, he's our best chance of finding her."

* * *

**Hillo! So...we have nine days until CATCHING FIRE! I decided I should let you know how many days we are closer too Catching Fire, the movie, for all you HG Fans...like me.**

**Responses to reviews: **

**Allygurl101: Ah! I hope you thought this was a good update! :D**

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**SO...I actually don't have homework tonight...but I have to study but...I decided to write this chapter and update it for you guys because I love you all. You all rock. :DDDD**


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